called mandatum or lavipedium, is also practised in the eastern Church. During the middle ages it was not only customary in monasteries, but with bishops, nobles, and even sovereigns. In England, the rite of the maundy continued to be performed by our sovereigns till the time of James II., who is said to have been the last sovereign who celebrated this rite in person. Afterwards it was performed in the palace of Whitehall, by the archbishops of York as lord almoners till A. D. 1731 at least ; but it has since been disused ", though several of the minor parts of the office are still retained.

In 1572 queen Elizabeth being thirty-nine years old, the feet of thirty-nine poor persons were washed on Maundy Thursday, at the palace of Greenwich, first by the yeomen of the guard, next by the subalmoner, and afterwards by the queen kneeling; and certain prayers having been said, clothes, provisions, and money were then distributed to the poor.

According to the ancient rites of the English Church, after vespers or evening prayer was finished, the bishop proceeded to the place where the mandatum was to be performed, and the gospel was read from John xiii." And supper being now ended," &c., comprising the narrative of our Lord's washing his disciples' feet. After a collect, the bishop laid aside his garment, and being girded with a linen cloth,

Hone's Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 400; Gentleman's Magazine, vol. i. p. 172.

h The archives of the Almonry office having been consumed by fire, I have not been able to ascertain the exact period at which this rite ceased to be practised. The Gentleman's

Magazine for 1754 (p. 188) represents the sub-almoner as distributing alms on Maundy Thursday; but there is no allusion to the washing of feet.

i From an account preserved by Lambarde, and printed in the Archæologia, vol. i. p. 7.

washed the feet of his attendants, while certain The office concluded with

anthems were sung. appropriate collects. In later ages it became customary to distribute provisions and money to the poor after the ablution of feet'.

The form of maundy at present observed is as follows:-Evening prayer is commenced, in which the proper psalm is Ps. xli. The first lesson is from John xiii., being the gospel of the ancient form. Certain anthems are then sung, during which clothes and money are distributed to the poor; the almoner and his attendants being girded with linen cloths, which were formerly used in the ablution of feet. The second lesson (Matt. xxv. 14-21), and prayers for the sovereign", succeed; and the remainder of the evening prayer is read in conclusion.

k "Ad Vesperas in Coena Domini non dicatur Deus in adjutorium &c. ... Expletis omnibus procedit Dominus episcopus cum omni alacritate cum presbyteris et clero si vult ante cibum, vel post cibum, ad locum ubi mandatum perficere vult... et diaconus imponat evangelium Ante diem festum Paschæ, sic ad missam. Lecto evangelio dicit episcopus hanc orationem: Deus, cujus cœnam sacratissimam veneramur, ut ea digni inveniamur munda nos quæsumus à sordibus peccatorum, qui ad insinuandum humilitatis nobis exemplum, pedes tuorum dignatus es hodie lavare discipulorum. Qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivis.' .. Data oratione episcopus

CHAPTER XXI.

PERAMBULATIONS ON THE ROGATION DAY S.

I HAVE already (vol. i. chap. ii.) spoken of the ancient litanies or supplications in general, and of the rogations in particular, which were instituted by Mamertus of Vienne, A. D. 450, and from which the three days before Ascension day are called Rogation days. The English Church received this custom at an early period, as the second council of Cloveshoe recognizes its antiquity". The service in these perambulations or processions originally consisted of psalmody, after which certain lessons and collects were read in the church". In later times the litanies, comprising invocations of the saints, were also sung in the procession. In the reigns of king Edward VI. and queen Elizabeth, when all other processions were forbidden, the perambulations on Rogation days were allowed to continue, during which Ps. ciii., beginning Benedic anima mea, &c., was to be said ",

a Concil. Cloveshoviense, II. can. 16.

b See vol. i. p. 303-305. As in the Processionale ad usum Ecclesiæ Sarum. fol. 103. d According to the injunc

VOL. II.

tions of Edmond Grindall, archbishop of York, A.D. 1571, Psalm civ., as well as ciii., was to be said in the perambulation. Wilkins, iv. p. 270.

B b

and the curate was to deliver an exhortation, for which a form exists in the second book of Homilies entitled, "An exhortation, to be spoken to such parishes where they use their perambulations in Rogation-week; for the oversight of the bounds and limits of their town." On their return to church, the common prayers are to be said; and a homily is provided for each of the three Rogation days. The objects of the whole office, as stated in the homilies, are principally, to thank God for his benefits, and to pray for seasonable weather for the harvest; and secondarily, to observe the bounds and limits of parishes'.

• See Injunctions of Eliza beth, Wilkins, Concilia, tom. iv. p. 184; and the bishop of London's Directions, in 1560, to the archdeacon of Essex, concerning the perambulations, forbidding surplices, lights, and banners, Wilkins, iv. p. 219.

It begins thus: "Although we be now assembled together, good Christian people, most principally to laud and thank Almighty God for his great benefits, by beholding the fields replenished with all manner of fruit, to the maintenance of our corporal necessities, for our food

and sustenance; and partly also to make our humble suits in prayers to his Fatherly Providence, to conserve the same fruits in sending us seasonable weather, whereby we may gather in the said fruits, to that end for which his fatherly goodness hath provided them: yet have we occasion, secondarily given us in our walks on those days, to consider the old ancient bounds and limits belonging to our own township, &c." An Exhortation, &c. Sermon for Rogation Week, part iv.

CHAP. XXII.

CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES

AND CEMETERIES.

AT what period Christian churches were first dedicated with special prayers, we are unable to determine; but the custom is certainly as ancient as the beginning of the fourth century. It is mentioned by Eusebius and Athanasius. It is also mentioned by Ambrose, and was doubtless customary in all parts of the Church from that time ".

a

The forms of dedication used in various churches have varied exceedingly in different ages. At the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, in the reign of Constantine, it appears